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Bodegas Tomas Cusine Vilosell (Costers del Segre, Spain)

You really should never buy wine on the strength of the label. Books and covers and all that.

Having said that, we all have our favourites; bottles that look fantastic on the table, labels that catch our eye on the back bar.

Personal favourites include Ridge’s wrap around look with its ultra clean typography, the gothic ridiculousness of Maximin Grunhauser from Germany and the almost cartoony font used by Figeac in St Emilion – a beacon of originality in a sea of anonymous sketches depicting chateaux.

A blend of Ull de Llebre (that’s Tempranillo to you and me), Syrah, Cabernet, Merlot, Samso and Garnacha, it is grown on the hills of Costers del Segre, a couple of hours west of Barcelona. The region is one of extremes, with the temperature gauge liable to fall below freezing in winter but race into the high 30s come July and August.

You can taste that summer sun in the deep, black fruit of the wine but the cool, hilltop nights also provide freshness and focus. The wine is powerful and full-bodied but not baked, heavy or thick. There is a delicious streak of minerality running down its core. This wine can handle chargrilled onglet just as well as roast saddleback of pork belly. It is truly versatile.

Artisan winemaker Tomas Cusine has done a superb job with the oak too – using the barrels to polish the fruit and smooth out any rough edges without adding distracting mocha coffee notes.

The mornings (and evenings) are darker, the trees are bare and pavements full of leaves. There’s one month of autumn left before we head into the joy (and craziness) of the festive season, so we round up four of our favourite autumnal wines – from New World Pinot to classic Barbera.
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It was a varied harvest across Spain – from devastatingly-low yields due to frosts in Rioja, to good volumes for sherry producers. The frosts were followed by a heatwave that affected many regions – which might result in some regionalised price increases. Scorching temperatures accompanied a drought that had the reservoirs half full ...
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